What to Expect at a Timeshare Presentation

Going in we are not really sure what to expect at a timeshare presentation. With a little knowledge and a lot of truth-telling, we EASILY survived a timeshare presentation! Granted, we spent a sleepless night beforehand worrying about the upcoming event and imagining our 10 year old becoming unglued. We strategized, planned and IT WORKED.

TIP #1

Do not lie.

Don’t lie about your income, don’t lie about your profession, traveling habits or anything else. You don’t need to. There is no obligation to buy. As such, you can be honest. It relieves stress not to lie. You also don’t need to lie about your level of interest. Presentations are done by nice people : they will pair you up with someone you could relate to – if you are 50-something loner, they’ll send a young thing to get your juices flowing; do not fall for that 😀

TIP #2

Do not withhold information.

Again, you don’t need to. Look at their offer on it’s merits. If you don’t like it, you don’t need to say otherwise.

Timeshares are a business deal, and let me share a little secret with you – for the majority of people, they are a rotten deal.

Here’s Why Timeshares Are A Bad Deal

1) Timeshares come with an annual “upkeep” charge (if yours doesn’t, good for you). That charge will vary by location and quality ($700-$1500/ year). That means that each year you will shell out approximately 50-90% cost for a week stay in the same resort ANYWAY, without a hassle of Timeshare.

2) Timeshares like yours could be bought for a fraction of the price on the secondary market. Often, you will find a timeshare for next-to-nothing. Sometimes the current owner is willing to pay you just to take over the annual charge. It’s ok to take a moment to ponder that last statement.

3) Your offer, and this is the real kicker, will come with pre-arranged financing. Would you like to guess the interest rate? Ours was 17.5%! LET ME REPEAT – 17.5%!! That means that over 7-year period (standard on a timeshare loan) you will pay almost TWICE the original price.

Our Ft. Lauderdale Timeshare Presentation Experience

We got to our presentation at 2 pm. They took us to “lunch” in the salesperson’s car. It was 20 minutes away, she was perfectly nice, but all we did was watch her eat while we had coffee.

Back at the center, she showed us the company’s “history” on the wall. She showed us the “exchange” map with all the timeshares around the world we would have access to, because EVERYONE will want to come and stay at our piece of S$@#! 45 minutes from the worst beach in Florida…

At the end of the day, the point of all this was to buy an access to a website? And hope and pray that someone will give me their digs in Aspen to enjoy my digs in Ft. Lauderdale? It didn’t make sense to me.

When confronted with the “ready to buy” question, here are the answers I gave:

1. I don’t want a timeshare. Period. I was told this will be a “Resort Tour”.

2. I don’t want to “play travel agent”. I don’t want to go on websites and swap vacations. I just want to buy a trip and I’ll pay whatever it costs.

3. I did not need to get to this part in my timeshare presentation experience, but IT IS A TERRIBLE DEAL. For $700-1500 bucks I can buy a week’s worth of stay almost anywhere, yet they want me to pay $28,000 + 20,000 in interest for a cool $48,000, just to have an obligation to pay $700-1500 for a vacation every year. Insanity.

Hope this helps you if you’re considering timeshare or attending a timeshare presentation.